Figures

Types of plotting functions

There are various plotting functions (e.g. plot_erp, plot_tfr) that take in numeric values, and do not require data structures such as patterns. These functions are designed to be easy to use even with other toolboxes. Each of the plot_* functions only draws one figure, and does not save it.

Other functions, which begin with pat_, such as pat_erp, can make many plots. For example, pat_erp will generally make one plot for each electrode. Each of these plots is printed to hard drive, and the paths to each of the figures is saved in a figure object. Figure objects can be used to make reports.

Uses for different plotting functions

pat_erp is generally used for plotting event-related potentials. However, it can also be used to plot power patterns; in this case, a plot is made for each electrode and frequency. pat_erp_image is useful for examining the EEG for individual trials, as well as the average over trials. pat_tfr is designed to plot time-frequency representations such as power values, and can make spectrograms or frequency plots depending whether there are multiple time bins in the pattern.

There are two general ways to plot data in a topographic format. pat_topoplot uses a color map to plot individual time bins, either on a cartoon topographic map, or a realistic 3D head model. pat_plottopo, on the other hand, plots whole ERPs, which are arranged in a topographic layout.